The man who is being held for the killings had in his possession -- in a safe, in his house -- a letter from Congresswoman Giffords, dating from 1997, before even most FReepers had even heard of her, let alone a druggie nutcase in Arizona. The letter had the handwritten words, "Die, bitch" on it.
His problems with Giffords predate Sarah: therefore she cannot have caused it.
In the days before Palin's video, leftists were crawling out of the woodwork, taunting her that she was responsible for the killings. People including the Sheriff of Pima County. You know, when was the last time you heard of a Sheriff on national TV commenting on a still-open crime scene before trial, and openly assigning blame to people other than the accused, in a political fashion, rather than a terse "No comment, there's an ongoing case"?
You think people are used to it, because of the 24x7 politicization, started by Bill Clinton's (ahem) "War Room" as illustrated by the trashing of Ken Starr during the Lewinsky scandal: Starr was forbidden by federal law from defending himself, and the Marxist vermin in the press were only too happy to poison the body politic by allowing the Lanny Davis and James Carville types to spew venom, hate, lies, and propaganda.
But this is different, since it is the prime Law Enforcement official *with original jurisdiction* doing this.
It is also different, in that his remarks were (by his own admission, on the 2nd day or so) totally without foundation, and only his own opinion: but his invective gave SOCIAL permission for the Mau-Mauers to pursue their craft.
It is even more different, in that the Sheriff's office had prior knowledge of the young moonbat, in that he had made death threats which had been reported to the Sheriff's office, but which were brushed aside because the young man's mother worked for Pima County and it would have engendered anti-liberal scandal to do anything about it.
Add to that the fact that this Sheriff has openly *refused* to enforce duly-enacted state law in Arizona regarding illegal aliens, and you have someone in a position of official authority abusing their office for political favoritism, quite similar to Eric Holder and the Black Panthers.
Only this time, people DIED.
And instead of the Sheriff being removed from office, for dereliction of duty, instead, the deaths engendered by HIS incompetence and left-wing ideology are used to attack politically a woman who lives several thousand miles away, who had publicly stated that VOTES were the way to change things, MONTHS before the shooting.
And when she did not respond personally to the attacks, she was attacked by leftists such as personal friends of George Tiller, the abortionist (this person is IIRC a cousin of the actress Gwyneth Paltrow, and a long-time leftist), and openly blamed by nutcases (including those on "networks" such as MSNBC).
Only after she released a video -- with no adoring teeny boppers, no teleprompter, no souvenir T-shirts -- was she attacked, this time for having the NERVE to defend herself, and to accurately describe the character assault; and then for making the whole story about HER.
Which is odd, since, as you point out, the "only two words anyone is talking about" are almost the only part of her (seven-and-a-half minute long) speech which are concerned with her.
And even then, there are cracks in the leftist meme against her: even a noted world-famous Jewish intellectual, tenured law professor of Harvard Alan Dershowitz, has defended her use of "blood libel" as accurate. (So much for the attempted meme that only idiots are defending her.) Democrat pollster Pat Caddell has openly excoriated Paul Krugman for the attacks; and even The Nation is quoting ABC News that Palin herself is the subject of death threats. In spite of Obama's calls for civility, The Nation is not joining in addressing the gravity of the idea that Palin is subject to death threats; rather, it is blaming her for not contacting the proper authorities about it. (And who should she contact? The Holder Justice Department, which gave orders to ignore videotaped violations of the Voting Rights Act by Black Panthers, and thereby drop a court case against them which the government had literally won already? Or Sheriff Dupnick, who blamed her FOR the shooting despite his own foreknowlege of the shooter?)
The point is, ANYTHING Sarah Palin said, or says, will be used against her: the trick is to do just what you do on this thread, which is to change the rules continually, so that they always favor the last thing *you* said. Comment on the silence, then on the fact of the response, then on the verbiage of the response, then on a nonexistent "climate of hate" against Gifford (there is a literal Facebook page full of thousands of people signing in on public that they want Palin DEAD -- but I haven't found any such page about Gifford).
In other words, it's because Palin's critics are utterly dishonest.
Why do you persist in blaming the victim of death threats, when they have been proven unwarranted?
Sarge, 50mm, etc -- can you please take a look at wtc's posting history?
You also accused him of saying somethings he didn't say, such as:
Why do you persist in blaming the victim of death threats, when they have been proven unwarranted?
As for Palin's use of the term "Blood Libel", I support her. And you can verify that by reading some of my recent posts.
DUH. No one on this thread or this board has said that Palin caused the Crazy Guy to shoot people last Thursday. The topic of this thread was her "blood libel" comment, on which opinions here differ. Try to stay on topic.
In addition --- and please read this carefully --- some of us who think her use of the term was inadvisable ALSO criticized the Pima County sheriff's comments the day of the shooting.
Hope that's not too much nuance for you.
What a baby you are. Waaaaaahhhhhhh......